FIG. 6 shows an example of a conventional card connector 100 as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-148223. In connector 100, the lateral edge on one side of a housing 101 in which a plurality of contact pins 102 have been embedded is provided with an ejector mechanism 103 for ejecting a connected card 110, while the lateral edge on the other side of the housing 101 is provided with a spring tab 107 that resiliently engages with the card 110, and restricts the movement of card 110 in the eject direction.
The ejector mechanism 103 is rotatably mounted to the lateral edge on the other side of the housing 101 by means of a support shaft 103a, and it has a control lever 104 and an ejector arm 106 that ejects the card 110. The control lever 104 is provided with a protrusion 105 that engages with a generally semicircular notch 112 in the lateral edge of the card 110 when the card 110 is connected to the card connector 100.
Meanwhile, the spring tab 107 has a base section 109 that is embedded in and fixed to the lateral edge on one side of the housing 101, and an arcuate member 108 that engages with a generally semicircular notch 111 formed on the lateral edge of the card 110 when it has been connected to the card connector 100.
Accordingly, the holding force produced by the engagement protrusion 105 and the spring tab 107 of the ejector mechanism 103 in the notches 112 and 111 acts on the card 110 connected to the connector 100 in addition to the frictional engagement force between the card 110 and the connector 100, and this makes it possible for the card 110 to be held in a secure manner within the connector.
With this conventional connector 100, since the arcuate member 108 on the spring tab 107 engages with the notch 111 in the card 110 when it has been connected to the connector 100, the engagement force of the arcuate member 108 also acts on the lateral edge of the card 110 when the ejector mechanism 103 is operated and the card 110 is ejected, which prevents the card 110 from falling out of the connector 100.
However, since conventional connector 100 was designed so that the arcuate member 108 would fit into the notch 111 in the lateral edge of the card 110, a problem was that when the ejector mechanism 103 was operated to eject the card 110 from the connector 100, and the card 110 was removed by hand, the arcuate member 108 would snag on the notch 111, making it difficult to remove the card 110.
Also, since the spring tab 107 extended in cantilever fashion from the rear of the housing 101 in the ejection direction of the card 110 (upward in FIG. 6), when the card 110 was inserted into the connector 100, the square edges of the card 110 struck the end of the arcuate member 108, thereby hindering the insertion of the card 110 into the connector 100.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a card connector with which a memory card or other such card housed in the connector can be prevented from falling out of the connector when the card is ejected, and with which the card can be removed from the connector with ease and be smoothly inserted into the connector.